VirtualPREX Logo
VirtualPREX
 Virtual Professional Experience
 Innovative assessment using a 3D virtual world with
 pre-service teachers

VirtualPrex is a mechanism whereby pre-service teachers can gain skills, confidence and techniques to support their real life professional experience prior to practicum by the use of virtual worlds.

Home
About the Project
Aims
Outcomes
Phases
How to use SL and VirtualPREX tools
VirtualPREX classrooms

VirtualPREX role-plays
Machinima
Assessment
Dissemination
Contacts - Project Team




Sponsored by:

ALTCSupport for this project has been provided by the Australian Learning and Teaching Council Ltd, an initiative of the Australian Government Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations. The views expressed in this website do not necessarily reflect the views of the Australian Learning and Teaching Council.

Creative Commons Licence
Creative Commons License
Except where otherwise noted, content on this site is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Australia Licence.

Aims of the Project
What the Project aims to achieve

The primary aim of this project is to:
  • support deeper professional learning experiences for pre-service teachers by providing expanded opportunities for quality professional practice sessions using formative assessment activities in a highly interactive 3D virtual world
  • documented principles and guidelines for implementing role-plays and formative assessment activities (especially self review)
  • transfer emphasis to peer- and self-led learning, with less reliance on supervisors, as well as providing greater flexibility and access to off-campus students
  • use automated bots as an alternative to humanly-controlled avatars
Medium and Long Term Goals

In the medium to longer term, this project also aims to:
  • provide a national, comprehensive, immersive, 3D virtual environment with spaces and resources designed to facilitate authentic teaching practice and formative assessment activities
  • address attrition/loss of undergraduate and novice teachers by better equipping them for their professional roles
  • leverage the Government’s broadband initiatives and provide diverse professional experience options for off-campus students, particularly remote and regional users
  • encourage partnerships to develop and implement a national approach to a virtual pre-professional experience space to reduce fragmentation of effort, make best use of investments, minimise barriers to effective use and sharing of resources and maximise access
  • promote and support strategic change for access to this pre-professional experience for pre-service teachers
  • embed formative assessment into Australia’s national pre-service teacher curriculum in a consistent way independent of specific technologies
  • extend the VirtualPREX concept across the higher education and VET sectors nationally

Project Member Institutions UNEDEHub Logo

Curtin    CSU       RMIT